[SOLVED] Battery reports low, netbook dies

yonnieboy · 03-31-2012, 02:54 PM

Running Squeeze on MSI U100 netbook. As soon as power-cord is removed the unit decides to report the battery power is critical and dies. If I boot into WinXP I can run for 2 more hours on battery power.

I have same model netbook using Meerkat and have no issues. Only I don't want to run Ubuntu on the netbook that is having a problem.

Is there a fix for this problem?

edbarx · 03-31-2012, 08:30 PM

Did you try a more recent kernel? Somehow, the state of the battery is being incorrectly reported. This means, it is a problem that has to do with power management.

Did you try (as root):

Code:

# acpi -V

to check whether the system can correctly report the battery's state?

The following link is a similar bug report:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=586352

yonnieboy · 03-31-2012, 11:38 PM

Thanks for helping. acpi -V ?, copied response below. Being unfamiliar with this command, I'm wondering if the info reported is what should be there. Would you know? Oh, forgot to do it as root.

lyn@debian:~$ acpi -V
Battery 0: Unknown, 99%
Battery 0: design capacity 2200 mAh, last full capacity 2030 mAh = 92%
Adapter 0: on-line
Thermal 0: ok, 48.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 0 switches to mode critical at temperature 100.0 degrees C
Cooling 0: LCD 0 of 8
Cooling 1: Processor 0 of 10
Cooling 2: Processor 0 of 10
lyn@debian:~$

yonnieboy · 03-31-2012, 11:42 PM

The acpi -V response appears to be the same when done as root.

I don't have a folder named BAT0. I do have a folder named BAT1, could that be the problem?

Synaptic says my updates are the latest. Running Squeeze.

edbarx · 04-01-2012, 04:24 AM

This is the result when I run acpi -V on my computer:

Code:

~$ acpi -V
Battery 0: Full, 100%
Battery 0: design capacity 4400 mAh, last full capacity 2699 mAh = 61%
Adapter 0: on-line
Thermal 0: ok, 43.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 0 switches to mode critical at temperature 110.0 degrees C
Cooling 0: LCD 0 of 9
Cooling 1: Processor 0 of 10
Cooling 2: Processor 0 of 10

The difference between mine and yours seem to be the word "unknown". However, the percentage charge is reported correctly.

Although, you said you have the latest packages according to synaptic, you can still upgrade the kernel to get more functionality. This can be done by using the backports repository.

This web-page tells you how to proceed.
http://backports-master.debian.org/Instructions/

Randicus Draco Albus · 04-01-2012, 06:52 AM

I hate to confuse things, but Conky does not recognise my lap-top's battery either. It displays "unknown" and .xsessions-errors says I do not have a BAT0 file. However, Conky does display the power level. (I put BAT1 in my .conkyconf.)

So the problem could be simpler or more complex than up-grading the kernel. I have no idea. Just adding a little information.

edbarx · 04-01-2012, 08:27 AM

Oh come on, upgrading the kernel from backports is not beyond human comprehension and there is the extra benefit of using a more recent kernel.

Randicus Draco Albus · 04-02-2012, 12:34 AM

I added some information that may be relevant in the off chance it may even be helpful. "Changing BAT0 to BAT1 in .conkyconf gives me a working battery monitor for an 'unknown' battery." Even if this tidbit of information is not helpful to the OP's situation, I see no reason for people to get upset.

yonnieboy · 04-02-2012, 05:04 PM

Ok, thanks. The backports seemed to have worked sort-of. When I unplug the netbook it will say battery discharging about half the time. Sometimes it will say battery critically low and die. But now I have a new problem, the Logitech mouse will turn off the netbook when I turn off the mouse. This isn't a big problem as I would seldom ever do that (remove the mouse while using the netbook), but none the less I never noticed this to happen before.